AOL Tightens CrunchBase’s Licensing to Block Competitors

AOL is legally locking down its crowdsourced CrunchBase database of tech companies, in response to a commercial iPhone app that used the database to compete with AOL.

The new CrunchBase license will continue to allow free use of the database for non-profit purposes, but forbids unauthorized commercial use.

The change, announced today, comes on the heels of a licensing flap first reported by WIRED, in which AOL demanded that a three-person company called Pro Populi withdraw its People+ iOS app, which used the CrunchBase dataset. AOL issued the demand despite the fact that CrunchBase was released under the commercial and non-commercial Creative Commons license.

Under a settlement agreement today between Pro Populi and AOL, People+ may continue using the data it pulled from TechCrunch’s API.

“We’re actually thrilled,” said Peter Berger, the Pro Populi chief executive. “Although, frankly, we’re a little disappointed with the change in their TOS [terms of service].”

Developers and app makers who wish to vacuum the TechCrunch data into their apps for commercial purposes will now need CrunchBase’s permission. That’s despite the fact that CrunchBase’s dataset, with some 455,000 tech profiles, is generated via crowdsourcing submissions from the tech community at large.

However, while Creative Commons licenses can be changed, they can’t be revoked. That means any existing copies of CrunchBase data already circulating under the old license can still be used commercially.

CrunchBase had ordered its data removed from the People+ app amid allegations that the app made a “wholesale use of CrunchBase content to simply replicate what CrunchBase does.” The startup hopes its database will grow as users contribute their own information. But for now, it’s seemingly a CrunchBase clone wrapped as an iOS app.

CrunchBase said 5,000 developers “are working with the API.”

AOL backed down on its legal attack on Prop Populi after the Electronic Frontier Foundation intervened.

“They’ve agreed to bury the hatchet after a few weeks of negotiations,” said Mitch Stoltz, an EFF staff attorney. “There will be no litigation. No money changed hands.”

CrunchBase said today that the data is now offered under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license. [CC-BY-NC]

“As with our previous terms, non-commercial use of the CrunchBase dataset simply requires attribution. We also encourage commercial use of the CrunchBase dataset, in whole or in part. Commercial uses do require a separate license to safeguard the community’s investment in the CrunchBase, as well as protect the dataset’s integrity,” Matt Kaufman, CrunchBase president, said in a blog post.